Route 1, Lengby, Minnesota 56651
Thought you might be interested in seeing some pictures of an
early steam-up, up here in the cold country.
It all started on Saturday, March 2, 1974. It was a beautiful
day, calm, sunshiny and 50 above and I was over to my brother’s
farm and my brother, Richard and I were looking the steamer over
and thought how much fun it would be if it was steamed up. You
guessed it….we put the water tank in the pickup and got a load of
water, put the handhole plates and new gaskets in, filled her with
water, stuffed the firebox with wood and lit the fire and in an
hour or so we had enough steam to turn the engine. So, we warmed
the engine up, made sure all the wheels were free and not frozen
down, gave the whistle a toot and drove her out and had a lot of
fun the rest of the day driving it and blowing the whistle. Come
evening we figured we’d keep her under steam over night and
play with it on Sunday, Unfortunately, the wind started blowing out
of the northwest and on Sunday the temperature was 30 above and
going down as the day went on. Around 2:00 we let the fire start
burning down. 4:00 the steam was down quite a bit, so I held the
safety valve open until all the steam pressure was down to nothing.
Then we let the boiler and water cool some, so as the scale
wouldn’t bake to the boiler, and then opened the blow valve and
dumped all the water and also drained everything else. It sure was
a lot of fun while it lasted.
guessed it….we put the water tank in the pickup and got a load of
water, put the handhole plates and new gaskets in, filled her with
water, stuffed the firebox with wood and lit the fire and in an
hour or so we had enough steam to turn the engine. So, we warmed
the engine up, made sure all the wheels were free and not frozen
down, gave the whistle a toot and drove her out and had a lot of
fun the rest of the day driving it and blowing the whistle. Come
evening we figured we’d keep her under steam over night and
play with it on Sunday, Unfortunately, the wind started blowing out
of the northwest and on Sunday the temperature was 30 above and
going down as the day went on. Around 2:00 we let the fire start
burning down. 4:00 the steam was down quite a bit, so I held the
safety valve open until all the steam pressure was down to nothing.
Then we let the boiler and water cool some, so as the scale
wouldn’t bake to the boiler, and then opened the blow valve and
dumped all the water and also drained everything else. It sure was
a lot of fun while it lasted.
